History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 82

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944
Publication date: 1923
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 844

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FRED H. ANDERSON. In handling his real estate business at Montrose Mr. Anderson has had the benefit of a long and successful career in news- paper work. He possesses the art of publicity as well as the other qualifica- tions for handling a large real estate project.

He established his business at Montrose with offices at the corner of Montrose and Honolulu avenues, on January 1, 1917. He does a general real estate business, but his most successful campaign was subdividing a fifty-acre property he owned personally, known as Honolulu Acres. He has sold all this. He is a member of the State Realty Board, the Montrose Chamber of Commerce and is a director of the Montrose State Bank.

Mr. Anderson was born at Cambridge, Maryland, June 5, 1874. He was educated in the public schools there, and for eight years was in the business office of the Cambridge Weekly Chronicle. Following that for two years he was associated with R. M. Michie, publishing the Daily News at Canandaigua, New York. For one year he was with the Michie Law Book Publishing Company at Charlottesville, Virginia, and then returned to Cambridge, Maryland, where he remained four years. After that he spent two years in the advertising department of the Philadelphia North American, and one year with the Philadelphia Inquirer. After his newspaper experience Mr. Anderson became a sales agent at Phila- delphia for the National Cash Register Company of Dayton, and was with that corporation altogether ten years, located in different parts of the United States. When he came to California in 1915 he first located at Los Angeles, and for six months was with the Harry Culver Company in real estate.

. On May 31, 1900, Mr. Anderson married Miss Ella C. Ide, of Leavenworth, Kansas, daughter of Judge Harvey W. Ide, a prominent man of Kansas. Mrs. Anderson was born in Leavenworth, was educated in the public schools there, and is a member of the Leavenworth Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

JAMES A. B. SCHERER, former president of the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena, has been widely known as an educator, traveler and author, and during the World war was chief of travel service under the Council of National Defense.

James Augustin Brown Scherer was born at Salisbury, North Caro- lina, May 22, 1870, son of Rev. Simeon and Harriet I. (Brown) Scherer. His father was a Lutheran minister. Doctor Scherer was graduated

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with the highest honors of his class and the Bachelor of Arts degree at Roanoke College, Virginia, in 1890, and in 1895 received the Master of Arts degree from the same institution. His Doctor of Philosophy degree was awarded by Pennsylvania College in 1897, and in 1905 the University of South Carolina gave him the degree Doctor of Laws. For many years Doctor Scherer was identified with the educational program of the Lutheran Church, and in 1892 founded the American Lutheran Mission in Japan. He was a teacher in the Imperial Japanese Govern- ment school at Saga from 1892 to 1897. After returning to the United States he resided at Charleston, South Carolina, until 1904, when he was elected president of Newberry College. He resigned as head of that institution in 1908 to come to California, and served as president of the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena from 1908 to 1920. It was under him that the old Throop Polytechnic Institute was reorganized and became one of the finest technical schools in the country.

Doctor Scherer has rendered many other important services to the cause of education. He secured an amendment to the constitution of California in 1913, exempting colleges from taxation. In April, 1917, he was appointed a member of the California Council of Defense, and in June of the same year became a member of the Council of National Defense, and was made chief of travel service. He was also appointed special representative of the United States Shipping Board. He founded the "Banner" Chapter of the American Red Cross at Pasadena in December, 1914.

Doctor Scherer is an independent in politics. He was for some years intimately associated with Col. Theodore Roosevelt. He is a member of of the University Clubs of San Francisco and Los Angeles, the Writers' Club of Hollywood, and both he and his wife are of old Revolutionary stock. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is identified by membership and in official relations with various educational and literary organizations.

Doctor Scherer as an author has written a number of books, including records of his observations and experiences in Japan.

At Kobe, Japan, July 5, 1894, he married Bessie Brown, daughter of Rev. Faris Brown. They have two children, Paul Armand Scherer of Medford, Oregon, who married Margaret Hale; and Isabel, wife of Frank R. Mosher, of Glendale, California. Doctor Scherer now resides at 2175 Green Street, San Francisco.

JAMES I. BUTTERFIELD is one of the most successful and enterprising of the residents of Long Beach, and his operations extend over a wide territory and cover many fields, although he has been especially active in real estate and oil developments. He was born at Branson, Missouri, January 21, 1887, but since September, 1911, has been identified with the life of Long Beach.

The parents of Mr. Butterfield were Ransom A. and Indiann (Wright) Butterfield. The former died at Long Beach December 23, 1922, but the latter survives and resides at 919 East Seventeenth Street, this city. Four of their five sons reside at Long Beach, the other one, E. R. Butter- field, being an orange grower of Riverside, California. Ransom A. Butter- field was one of the prominent contractors of Long Beach, and a man universally respected. He had been a resident of the city for eleven years at the time of his demise, and was very prominent in the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

James I. Butterfield was given an excellent education, and supplemented his courses . in the Missouri public schools with those afforded by the University of Oklahoma, and then for several years alternated school- teaching with farming in Oklahoma. However, he did not feel satisfied with the results, and decided upon making a radical change. Coming to Long Beach he entered the contracting business and has continued in it ever since, specializing on flats and bungalow courts, but has branched

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out to include other interests. He also entered the police department and rose from patrolman to be chief. of police, but owing to political com- plications only held the latter office for a year. During that time he demonstrated his ability, and gave the city a most excellent service through his department.

As his ventures succeeded Mr. Butterfield invested in Long Beach property, and has bought and sold some of its most desirable sites and buildings. A man of good judgment, he- was one of the pioneers in the oil industry in the county, and owns valuable holdings in the Signal Hill oil field, is a trustee of the Herwick No. 7 Oil Syndicate, of the Downs-Butterfield Oil Syndicate, which he helped to organize, and is a director of the Long Beach Consolidated Oil Company. Recognizing the importance of the citrus industry, he has bought fruit lands, and owns several valuable orange and apricot ranches in Southern California. His holdings extend, however, still further afield, for he owns a magnificent wheat ranch in Montana and properties in Seattle, Washington, different points in South Dakota, Oklahoma and Montana, as well as a large amount of realty at Long Beach. He is a prominent member of the Managerial Club of Long Beach, which organization plays an important part in shaping the affairs of the city. Fraternally he maintains membership with Long Beach Lodge No. 327, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and he is also a Royal Arch, Knights Templar and Shriner Mason. Oasis Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Long Beach has his membership, and he belongs to other organizations and orders.

On April 22, 1911, Mr. Butterfield married at Oklahoma City, Okla- homa, Miss Myrtle M. Hopkins, who was born in Texas, but reared and educated in Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Butterfield have four children, namely : Helen W., James I., Jr., Woodrow H. and Mary Indiann, all of whom were born at Long Beach. The Butterfield residence at 440 Loma Avenue is one of the beautiful homes of Long Beach, and here the friends of the family are entertained with delightful hospitality. Mr. Butter- field has made his own way in life, and that it has led him into many successful ventures is largely due to his natural ability and shrewd acumen. He has known how to invest. Many are able to earn money, some çan save it, but there are only a few who understand the proper investing of their capital so as to have it yield them a handsome return. In all of his operations, however, he has always maintained his characteristically honorable method of doing business, and is proud of the fact that his integrity and uprightness are never questioned.

WARREN RANDOLPH FLYNN, freight and passenger agent of the Santa Fe System of Pasadena, is a graduate physician, and when he came to California it was his intention to continue his medical practice, but instead he accepted an opportunity to get into the railroad service, his former occupation, and he has been with the Santa Fe ever since, and has enjoyed many promotions in that service.

He was born at Walton, Cass County, Indiana, November 12, 1869. His father, Patrick O'Connell Flynn, was a native of Virginia, but at the age of sixteen enlisted in the Union army, in Company B of the Fifty- fifth Indiana Infantry, and served during the closing campaigns in 1864-65. After the war he became an attorney and was active in Indiana politics. His wife, Lovina Bishop, was born in Maryland, niece of Gov. R. N. Bishop of Ohio. They were married at Walton, Indiana, and both died .. before reaching their fiftieth birthday. Their two sons are Adelbert P. and Warren R., the former a stock and bond dealer at Logansport, Indiana.

Warren R. Flynn attended the common schools of Walton, Indiana, also the American Normal School at Logansport, and as a boy he worked in a drug store before and after school and during vacations, receiving what to him seemed the generous wage of a dollar a week. Subsequently he served an apprenticeship in a telegraph office, and then was on the pay roll of the Pennsylvania Company as a telegrapher in various posi-

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tions and at various localities. Out of his earnings as a telegrapher he saved enough to attend medical college, and in 1897 graduated Doctor of Medicine from the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons at Indian- apolis. He then returned to Walton, Indiana, and enjoyed a prosperous practice there for a year or so. Finding the severe winters detrimental to his health he came to California in 1899. He applied for a license with the medical board, and while awaiting the license he took the oppor- tunity to engage in railroading with the Santa Fe, beginning as relief agent. He worked at nearly all stations in Southern California until his marriage, and then, in 1910, was transferred to a regular station at Redondo Beach. He was removed to Redlands in 1912, and since 1916 has been at Pasadena

. Mr. Flynn was director of the Redlands Chamber of Commerce from 1913-16. He is a democrat in national politics, is a member of the Masons and Elks, and the Sons of Veterans and was vice-commander in 1919-22 of Phil Kearney Camp No. 7, and is an honorary member of John F. Godfrey Post No. 93, Grand Army of the Republic. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Pasadena and the Chamber of Commerce of that city.

On September 9, 1907, at Pasadena, he married Daisy E. Rhoden, daughter of Charles O. and Lillian Sales Rhoden, now deceased. Her father for a number of years was in the jewelry business at Anamosa, Iowa. Mrs. Flynn is a member of the Opportunity Club of Pasadena. They have two children: Warren Randolph, Jr., born at Redondo Beach, July 12, 1910; and Barbara May, born at Redlands, March 9, 1913.

CHARLOTTE M. BROWN, M. D. One of the talented women in the professional life of Los Angeles for a number of years has been Doctor Brown. Her talents were first manifested in a literary and artistic way, and for a time she did concert work. She came to California about seven- teen years ago on a visit and while here determined to study medicine, therefore attended the southern branch of the University of California, graduating with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1910. Doctor Brown actively practiced medicine for several years, but of late has confined her professional work to that of anaesthesia. Her skill in that important branch of modern surgery is widely acknowledged and appreciated in the Los Angeles district.

Doctor Brown is a native of Canada, daughter of John L. and Sarah (Thorne) Brown, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Canada. Her parents both died in Massachusetts. Doctor Brown has a sister, Miss Cora N. Brown, now living in Los Angeles.

Doctor Brown was reared in Massachusetts, was educated in the schools of Boston, attending the Boston School of Expression, where she graduated. Subsequently she took post-graduate work there and special literary courses in the summer schools at Harvard University. Prior to coming to California she had done considerable teaching and concert work.

While she retains her own name in her professional work, Doctor Brown is the wife of Charles A. Baechtold, a mechanical engineer. Recently they purchased a beautiful home of Chinese design in the heart of the Wilshire district. Doctor Brown is a member of the Ebell Club, the Friday Morn- ing Club, the Professional Woman's Club, the Soroptomist Club, the Woman's Auxiliary of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers*, the Kappa Chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Iota (a national medi- cal fraternity), and is a member of the American Medical Association. the California State Medical Society, the Los Angeles County Medical Society, as well as the National State and Local Anaesthetist, societies.

VAL L'ESTER is a native Californian who thinks, feels, talks and works in a spirit of appreciative progressiveness, and as a vital, reliable and broad- gauged representative of the real estate business in Los Angeles County,

*Metallurgical Engineers.

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with residence and headquarters at Long Beach, he wields influence in connection with civic and material advancement.

Mr. Lester was born in Tulare County, California, July 3, 1888, and is a son of J. P. and Marguerite L. (Mattlock) Lester, who now main- tain their home at Sanger, Fresno County, where the father is success- fully engaged in the real estate business. Both he and his wife were born and reared at Little Rock, Arkansas, whence they came to Cali- fornia and made permanent settlement forty years ago, they being honored pioneer citizens of Fresno County and the parents of five sons and two daughters, all of whom pay loyal allegiance to California, the subject of this sketch having been the fourth child in order of birth.

·Val Lester is indebted to the public schools of Fresno for his early education along academic lines and to his own alert powers and determined efforts for his significant business advancement and success. When he arrived in Long Beach, in 1916, his person was adorned with a cash capital of six dollars. He borrowed the $600 on which he based his initial and independent operations in the real estate business here, and the results of his efforts have been on a parity with his energy, his reliability, his progressive policies and his fine initiative and constructve genius. In his operation here within a period of six years he has accumulated fully $200,000. A a realtor he has won special fame under the title of Val Lester, Bungalow Merchant. He has built and sold hundreds of houses in the Long Beach district, and has developed successfully a number of the city's most attractive subdivisions. At the time of this writing, in the winter of 1922-23, he 'has under construction more than twenty- seven houses, largely of the approved California bungalow type, and in connection with his extensive operations he retains a sales corps of fifteen persons. He now has two offices, one at 254 East Broadway, and the other, his own building, at 425 East Broadway. He is associated selling agent of the Cooper-Arms, the great cooperative (own-your-own-apart- ment) building now in course of construction at Long Beach, at a cost of $1,500,000, besides which he is a sole fiscal agent for the American Homes, projecting a building of similar cooperative ownership, to be erected at a cost of $300,000, and the Californian, a $400,000 own-your- own project. He is chairman of the own-your-own-home committee of the Long Beach Realty Board, is a valued member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and an active member of the California Real Estate Association. The Long Beach Realty Board is the second largest organization of its kind in California. Mr. Lester is president of the Federal Loan Society, a new enterprise, with offices in the Pacific-Southwest Trust & Savings Bank Building. He is a leader in development enter- prises in the Long Beach district of Los Angeles County, and has gained a place as one of the most progressive and successful representatives of real estate enterprise in his native state. He is a republican of loyal political allegiance, and is affiliated with Long Beach Lodge No. 888, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His attractive home, a center of generous hospitality, is at 290 Temple Avenue. Liberal quotations from a recently published newspaper article are consistently made in this con- nection, minor eliminations and other changes being made in the following reproduction :

"The few years which have marked the surprising growth of Long Beach from nothing to a high place among the big cities of the country," said Val Lester, bungalow merchant, "have been significant in results, as shown by the fact that continued prosperity here has been one of solid and substantial development and built upon a permanent basis."

"Bungalow Merchant is the property of its creator, Val Lester, realtor, who originated the slogan in the first years of his handling of Long Beach real estate. His organization has well located offices at 254 East Broadway and 425 East Broadway, and in addition to building and selling bungalows, which is an important feature of the business, the company

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deals in general real estate, handling investments, exchanges, business properties, leases, loans and insurance. The Val Lester firm occupies · a place in the front rank of successes in the investment and realty field in Long Beach, and a strong position as appraisers of local property. Val Lester occupies a high place in the financial and commercial activities of the city." "The prosperity of Long Beach is not dependent upon any one industry," said. Mr. Lester, "althought the tourists are welcome factors and are as permanent an asset as the sunshine which draws them here."

At Hanford, California, on the 30th of September, 1911, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lester and Miss Dorothy Tucker, who was born and reared in Tulare County, and who attended school also at Hanford in Kings County. Mr. and Mrs. Lester have one son, Floyd Oral, born July 10, 1917, at Long Beach.

WRIGHT W. GIPSON, the efficient city marshal of Hermosa Beach, was born in Dade County, Missouri, on the 24th of July, 1881, and is a son of John W. and Laura F. (Willis) Gipson, both likewise natives of that state, where the father continued to be engaged in farm enterprise until about 1886. He then moved with his family to Oklahoma, where he was a pioneer settler and where he engaged successfully in the raising of cat -. tle. In 1918 John W. Gipson came to California, and here he is the owner of a valuable ranch property near Lemoore, Kings County. He is a demo- crat in political allegiance and is an earnest member of the Baptist Church, as was also his wife, whose death occurred in Oklahoma.

The public schools of Oklahoma constituted the medium by which Wright W. Gipson gained his youthful education, and there also he gained a full measure of experience in connection with the operations of his fa- ther's ranch. In 1907 he came to Los Angeles County and established his residence at Hermosa Beach, he having aided in surveying many of the streets of this city and having taken loyal interest in the communal advance- ment and growth. He has served for the past ten years as city marshal, and his long retention of this office shows the high estimate placed upon him by the people of Hermosa Beach, He is a member of the local Cham- ber of Commerce and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World.

On the 27th of July, 1902, Mr. Gipson was united in marriage with Miss Sadie Rex, who was born near Barnett, Missouri, where she re- ceived her earlier education, which was continued in the schools of Okla- homa after the family removal to that state, she having attended the public schools of the City of Tulsa. Her parents, George and Betty (Vaughn) Rex, reside at Owasso, Oklahoma. She is a member of the Woman's Club of Hermosa Beach, and also an active member of the Baptist Church in this city. Mr. and Mrs. Gipson have four children: Evan P., Willard Wright, Howard B. and Desda Helen. .

JAMES B. FARLEY after an extensive business experience in his native State of Ohio came to California in 1910, and for several years has been a prominent real estate man in Huntington Park. He established his business there in September, 1921, with offices at 110 North Pacific Boulevard. He specializes in business property along this boulevard, and also does a gen- eral real estate, brokerage, insurance, loan, exchange and rental business.

Mr. Farley was born near Ironton in Lawrence County, Ohio, October 30, 1852, son of James and Johanna (Callahan) Farley. His parents were both natives of Ireland, his father of Dublin and his mother of County Cork. James Farley came to this country when a young man, first located at Mobile, Alabama, later at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he married, and for seventeen years he was a contractor of iron ore. It was this busi- ness that took him to the iron fields of Southern Ohio. Later he bought a farm in Scioto County, Ohio, near Portsmouth, and lived there thirty-two years, until his death. He was a Catholic and a democrat. His children were: Thomas, deceased ; James B .; John, of Columbus, Ohio; Philip,

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deceased ; Patrick and Daniel, of Portsmouth, Ohio; Anna, wife of Patrick Call, of Portsmouth.

James. B. Farley was reared in Southern Ohio, attended the public . schools and was associated with his father on the farm until he was twenty- four years old. After leaving the farm he was a hotel clerk at Ironton, for · five years was proprietor of a restaurant in Portsmouth, and was then appointed and served two years as superintendent of state shops in the Ohio Penitentiary. Following that he located at Columbus, where he was in the real estate and insurance business for twelve years. He was then appointed and served five years as United States marshal of Ohio, and for the three years before he came to California was in charge of the circulation department at Columbus of the Catholic Columbian, one of the leading. Catholic papers of the Middle West.

Selling his interest in Ohio, Mr. Farley in April, 1910, came to Cali- fornia, and in Los Angeles engaged in the electrical business with a son for three years. Following that he lived on a ranch near Arcadia until he established his real estate office at Huntington Park in 1921.

Mr. Farley is a Catholic, is a member of the Knights of Columbus, Ancient Order of Hibernians and Foresters, and for three years was a state organizer of the Catholic Foresters in Ohio.

On November 11, 1884, he married Miss Fannie Carr, daughter of James and Nancy (Carr) Carr, of Jackson, Ohio. She was born at Jack- son, was educated in public schools there, and was a teacher for a short time before her marriage. She was a member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Catholic Foresters. Mr. Farley lost his wife by death on March 7, 1919, when they had been married nearly thirty-five years. There are seven children. Cecelia A. is the wife of Richard B. Lucky, of Lodi, California. The son James P. is in business at Los Angeles. Mary is the wife of Kelley McKinzie, of Casper, Wyoming. John J., who resides at Fullerton, Cali- fornia, married Burnadetta Dix, who for two years sang in the mission play at San Gabriel as one of the cast of performers who rendered Mr. Mc- Groarty's wonderful religious drama. Frances, the fifth of the family, is the wife of Walter A. Danielson, of Los Angeles. Michael lives at Los Angeles, and Catherine, the youngest, is the wife of Ray Compton, of that city. Mr. Farley has five grandchildren, Spencer P. and Gordon T., sons of James P., Burnadetta and Jack, children of his son John J., and Rita, a daughter of Mrs. Frances Danielson.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 82

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944 Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Number of Pages: 844

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944
Publication date: 1923
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 844